Shinji in Dream Land
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: Suppose that shortly after being abandoned, Shinji was taken to a place beyond the known cosmos and lived a relatively peaceful life? Suppose that, years later, he returns to where he was abandoned, unchanged, and throws a wrench in his father's plans? Suppose his hero…was the jolliest person any of us would ever know? Small, pink and with a big appetite. Rating may change.
1. Prologue

Creation began on 07-21-17

Creation ended on 07-24-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shinji in Dream Land

A/N: A reviewer to _Evangelion APB_ by the name of Chu asked if I could try something like this, except since they're not a registered user of the site, I couldn't really respond to their suggestions. But this is a minor attempt that may or may not relate to the multiverse system my other Eva stories fall into. Here's an attempt at something that is, as usual, different.

His father abandoned him. His aunt was supposed to be by to come and get him, but that was a long time ago (he didn't know that three hours had passed since his father left him at the train station). All Shinji knew was that something terrible had happened a few days ago…and nothing else was the same for him. And all he wanted now was some sort of friend or companion, someone that wouldn't abandon him.

"Poyo," he heard something on the train tracks. "Poyo."

He went over to the edge and looked down at the tracks, seeing something that was unlike anything he had seen before. It looked like a person, but they were completely pink and roundish, with red shoes, like some sort of blob. Their eyes were much bigger than a regular person's, but they were a nice shade of blue.

"Poyo," it said, opening its mouth and inflating itself to float up to the platform beside Shinji. "Poyo."

Shinji gave no indication that he was intimidated by the creature. If this creature was some sort of threat, it didn't do anything to make itself dangerous to the boy.

"Hello?" Shinji asked it.

"H…h…hello," it responded, sounding similar to a boy.

-x-

Fuyutsuki knew that Gendo was a terrible father, but this was beyond the most irresponsible thing he did so far. To leave his son at a train station for his sister-in-law to pick up, only to discover, five hours later, that by the time she bothered to show up, only Shinji's bag was there…and nobody could tell where he went or who might've been seen with him.

This…was three days ago.

Shinji Ikari had just disappeared off the face of the Earth.

-x-

Shinji awoke sometime later to the sight of a beautiful setting. The place wasn't anything like where he'd been; there were few buildings and more grass, trees and water, and the only roads he could see were made of dirt. What was more was that he felt an air of total calmness all around him; no sense of difficulty, no feelings of hurt, not even the pain of what happened to him was in his mind. Just the feeling of happiness.

"What is this place?" He asked.

"This…is Dream Land," someone answered him, and he looked to his left and saw someone who seemed like a lady person, but she looked like a living piece of fruit or something; she had blond hair with an orange ponytail, orange feet and a green and pink dress. "Dream Land of Planet Popstar."

"Who…who are you?" Shinji asked her.

"I am Tiff…and it looks like you've met Kirby earlier."

"K…Kirby?"

Tiff pointed over towards a dome-shaped house near a tree and at the pink individual that Shinji met at the train station.

"He saw what happened to you and brought you here. Here, nobody hurts, nobody's suffering from something terrible. Here, everything's tranquil."

"Poyo," they heard Kirby say, floating in the air.

"I don't understand why he speaks the way he does," Shinji told Tiff.

"No one here really does, but we don't complain about it," Tiff explained to him. "He's probably a really young soul like you are. And since he's always helping everyone in trouble, Kirby is an unusual hero all over Popstar."

-x-

 _Eleven Years Later_

Ring-ring-ring! Gendo's phone rang and he answered.

"Yes?" He asked, receiving a response that left him rather rattled. "What was that?"

He then hung up and looked up at Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki.

"What was that about?" The aged man questioned.

"That was the police in Tokyo-2," he explained. "They said they found a boy matching the description of the Third Child."

"You mean your son, Shinji," Fuyutsuki frowned; ever since the day the boy just dropped off the face of the Earth, he refused to let the disgraceful father forget to address his son by his name. "And how can the police be certain that they found him?"

"They used the records they had from when he was last seen."

-x-

The police were stunned, but DNA was no liar…and neither was the description of what Shinji was wearing when he disappeared: A striped shirt and shorts. The craziest thing about finding him was that he was three when he was declared missing…and the police found a three-year-old boy that was him, exactly as he was eleven years ago.

Shinji, unchanged from the time he was taken to Popstar, was starting to regret his choice to come back and visit the place he really couldn't call his home, anymore.

"Can I get you anything?" A male police officer asked him as he sat on a bench, handcuffed to it like he did something wrong to deserve it when all he did was sit down and look at a map detailing where the train was supposed to go.

Shinji didn't speak a word to the policeman and nodded his head in the negative.

"Where is he?" He heard that voice, that cold, hardened voice that he only heard in his nightmares every other night, and saw his father. "Is this a joke?"

"No, sir, we checked his prints, hair, DNA," said a policewoman to him, "and he's Shinji Ikari, right down to his dental records."

"But he's…small."

"Because he's still three years old, physically. Somehow, he hasn't aged a day in eleven years."

Gendo looked at Shinji, but then noticed his expression being that of pure rage; his son was outright upset about something…or someone.

-x-

"…This is insane," went Ritsuko Akagi, going over the Third Child's test results for the seventh time. "There's no explanation for any of this."

"He's the same age when his mother died," said Fuyutsuki, who stressed that there was absolutely no reason or need to treat Shinji like a laboratory specimen because of his circumstances. "Has anyone even tried talking to him?"

"He hasn't spoken a word since he was found at the train station. He just nods his head in response to whatever is asked of him. But he's been checked of any injuries. There's no medical reason for why he doesn't speak. He just…won't."

"Has his father spoken to him?"

"No, sir."

"I'm going to go speak with him, then."

"But Commander Ikari gave specific orders that nobody talk to him until he does."

"The day he does that will most likely be never!"

Fuyutsuki walked into the room that Shinji was being kept in and took a closer look at him. He was exactly the same as he was the day his mother died, but something seemed off with him, like he wasn't as cheerful as he used to be.

"Hello, Shinji," he greeted the boy. "How are you doing?"

Shinji merely waved his right hand.

"Not big on talking, are you?"

"If one has nothing worth saying, they shouldn't speak," Shinji responded, surprising Fuyutsuki with his speech fluency. "And if one doesn't have anything nice to say, then they aren't worth speaking."

"Who told you that?"

"I think you know who."

And somehow, Fuyutsuki had the feeling that he did know who. Not only was Gendo a bad father, he gave bad advice.

"So…where have you been…and…how are you still…little?"

"Dream Land," Shinji explained. "Dream Land of Popstar."

"Dream Land? Popstar?"

As Ritsuko observed the conversation, she wrote down what the boy said for reference. It surprised her that his speech was rather mature for a three-year-old, but she had to suspect, along with the police, that wherever Shinji disappeared to, he might've been harmed by someone, despite the fact that he had no reported injuries, external or internal.

"Where is this…Dream Land?" Fuyutsuki asked Shinji. "Is it…someplace you go to when you fall asleep somewhere?"

"No," Shinji answered, pointing up to the ceiling. "It's a happy place on Popstar, way out there."

"And Popstar is an…island? A neighborhood? Clubhouse?"

Shinji then removed something from around his neck. It was a large, five-pointed star.

"Popstar looks like this," he explained. "It's been the only place I was able to call home due to its tranquility. No one fights over anything. No wars, no tragedy. The people there are very kind and accepting, except for a former king. He was a troublemaker."

"And…how did you end up getting to…Popstar?"

"Kirby took me there."

"Kirby?"

"He's everyone's favorite hero. The jolliest fellow you'll ever meet."

-x-

"You think he's damaged?" Gendo asked Ritsuko and Fuyutsuki later that day.

"Personally, I believe him," said Fuyutsuki to him. "If he says this…Popstar exists, then it must exist. It's not some type of fantasy for him. Maybe it explains why he hasn't aged in eleven years."

"We can't give him a polygraph test, but he seems to know the difference between telling the truth and telling lies," added Ritsuko. "This, along with there being no evidence of any sort of abuse, can't suggest any degree of mental instability. There's something else, too?"

"What is it?" Gendo asked again.

"He says that he really hates you for what you did to him that day?"

"Did what to him?"

"You left him, Ikari," Fuyutsuki reminded him. "Being gone for eleven years didn't make him forget about you leaving him at that station, which he says is where he met this…Kirby, who then took him to Popstar to live in Dream Land. He still had the pain of the abandonment, but it was tempered by the large degree of peace he had while there. It's only because he came back here that his anger towards you returned."

"And who is this…Kirby?"

"According to Shinji, he's everyone's favorite hero. The jolliest fellow you'll ever meet."

Now Gendo was starting to doubt that he could even use his son to pilot the Eva at all. What's more was that news of his return was spreading faster than NERV could put a lid on it, with people as far as Hokkaido wanting to know where he was found, when he was found, where he was all this time, what he did to survive and who was with him. His son had become an overnight celebrity for his ageless appearance and safe return.

Fuyutsuki then took out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Gendo.

"This is what Kirby looks like most of the time," he explained to him, and Gendo felt like someone was playing games with him.

"I'm guessing this means we shouldn't try to see if he can sync with the Eva," went Ritsuko.

-x-

On the far side of the moon, observing the Earth from a grand distance, Kirby, deciding to stick around if Shinji's people needed assistance, wondered how the unchanged child was doing after being away from his original world for so long.

A/N: I'll stop here for now and let it get some traction. I don't really expect it to get heard by everyone, but this is just an attempt because someone suggested it and I gave it a try.


	2. Meet Kirby

Creation began on 08-17-17

Creation ended on 10-15-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Meet Kirby

NERV was in a tight situation right now. Not only were they dealing with the Angels in less than a week, but the person they had spent eleven years looking for had come back from…someplace they weren't even sure existed, was unchanged from the day he supposedly went missing, and was inadequate for their Evangelion program due to his lack of physical maturation. They needed thirteen-fifteen-year-olds, not some three-four-year-old toddler that hated his father for abandoning him shortly after the death of his mother. And they were now getting complaints from concerned citizens that the paramilitary agency was turning Shinji into a lab rat because of his unique circumstances, hoping that they could replicate his so-called agelessness for personal or economic gain.

"His return has caused a riot to form in Tokyo-3," Ritsuko informed Gendo in his office, two days later.

"They're demanding that Shinji be treated like a person," added Fuyutsuki, agreeing with the public over the agency, "not a laboratory specimen."

"Still, it's amazing he has survived for this long unchanged."

"It doesn't mean a thing if you and others are poking and prodding him every few hours and asking him questions he won't answer or doesn't know how to. When was the last time he ever got any good sleep? Probably too long ago that he misses that over being here."

"We'll see if he can attempt synchronization with the Eva," Gendo decided.

"Ikari," the sub-commander reacted, "he couldn't sync with the Eva, no matter how much you expect him to, due to his unchanged appearance. And…doing such will only further tarnish this agency more."

"What do you propose, then, Fuyutsuki?" He asked.

"Nothing that you would agree with."

-x-

Among many things here that he would've enjoyed more on Popstar, Shinji didn't like the sense of confinement that he was getting from NERV ever since he was brought down to the Geo-Front. And the worst part of his return to the Earth…was that his father couldn't or wouldn't do the one thing that would've been the first step in the right direction between the two. This…just made the boy miss his home away from the blue marble that lost any right to be addressed as home. This made him miss the people there that welcomed him, despite his pain, despite his swelling anger towards his father.

As he lay on his cot in the room he was put him, trying to recover from the last round of blood drawing the adults had done on him, he looked at his necklace of Popstar, drawing at least some comfort that if things didn't go well here, he could always go back there. Back to clear skies, pleasant winters, happy autumns, joyful beaches and friendly communities.

"You always build it better the second time around," he uttered.

Suddenly, the alarms went off like crazy, indicating that something was wrong.

-x-

The Angel had shown up much earlier than it was expected to…and demolished a dozen tanks and jets as it made its way to Tokyo-3. People ran to whatever shelter they could, desperate to get away from the monster, but the Angel ignored them in favor of its goal to reach what was there in Tokyo-3 over all else. Nothing from bullets to missiles were affecting its trek to the chosen destination.

-x-

Kirby saw the Angel attack the people in front of it, but even though it disregarded the people that were fortunate enough to survive its unprovoked trek, it didn't ease the jolly alien to see them suffer. And he thought of Shinji, who might've been one of the casualties or was going to be one unless the creature was stopped…and he needed to stop it. For Shinji's sake.

"Poyo," he uttered, getting into his ship and making his course toward Earth.

-x-

"…ETA is one hour and eighteen minutes," said Shigeru to Commander Ikari.

"What's the status of Unit-01?" Gendo asked Ritsuko.

"On standby, awaiting deployment," she answered him.

"But Rei can't pilot it," expressed Misato, reminding them that their primary pilot was still in recovery from the failed Unit-00 activation.

"We won't be using the First Child," Gendo stated. "We'll be using the Third Child."

That caused a silent uproar of disgust in Central Dogma. It was already bad enough that NERV was getting negative press about their leader's ill treatment towards his son, but now the idea of sending the unchanged child out into a war he didn't know about, in a weaponized cybernetic organism he probably had no knowledge of, to face an enemy he couldn't hope to comprehend was cruel and unjustifiable. There wasn't even a question of whether or not the boy could even fit in the seat that was too big for him, let alone sync with the Eva.

"Ikari, we can't," Fuyutsuki defended the boy against his father. "He might not have aged a day since he disappeared to wherever he says he went to, and his speech fluency is better than a regular child's, but his chances of synchronizing with the Eva are practically nonexistent."

"We have no choice," Gendo stated; in truth, he was just convinced that the boy could sync with Unit-01, regardless of his appropriate age deficiency.

"What is that?" Hyuga questioned, pointing to something new on the holographic displays showing the Angel as it waded through Tokyo-2.

Something star-shaped had flown in from the sky…and out popped a small, pinkish creature.

"No way," some of the lower personnel expressed.

Fuyutsuki looked at the pink creature as satellite imagery became more clarifying, and down at the drawing of the jolly person Shinji claimed had saved him years ago.

"He was…telling the truth?" Ritsuko wondered.

-x-

The Angel was much larger than Kirby anticipated, but he wouldn't back down. All he needed was a piece of the the enemy and he could fight back better with the total sum of what this one was capable of.

"Poyo!" He shouted, using his Final Cutter move and managing to get a piece of the Angel's right arm. "Poyo!"

Then, he inhaled the severed piece and began the copying process. His mass increased and a faceplate identical to the Angel as his pink exterior turned a dark shade of green.

"Star Warrior Kirby!" He identified himself. "Sachiel Mode!"

-x-

Shinji was brought into Central Dogma on Gendo's orders to help clarify the identity of the creature that was fighting the Angel, and couldn't believe that Kirby was still around; he had expected the jolly fellow to return to Popstar.

"Shinji," went Fuyutsuki to him, "is that…Kirby?"

The boy looked at Kirby's new form and nodded in the positive.

"Why is this…Kirby here?" Gendo asked him.

"I don't know why he's here," Shinji defended; he really hadn't expected the alien to be here. "You'd have to ask him."

If this was Shinji's way of talking back against his father, he gave no indication of it.

On the screens, Kirby fired eye beams at the Angel, which tried to defend with its arms. Then he kicked the distracted Angel backwards, sending it several feet close to the outer limits of the city.

"Kirby's fighting the Angel," Fuyutsuki stated to Gendo. "Very…heroic."

"That little guy?" A man questioned.

-x-

Kirby saw the Angel's core and knew instinctively that he had to destroy that to stop its threat to the planet. His arms glowed with the power of the Angel and he shot like a bullet towards the core.

Sachiel feared for his life and erected his AT-Field, but it was pointless to try. Somehow, this creature had assimilated his powers and was using them against him; trying to defend himself against this thing was like trying to defend against himself. It was…as though he were facing himself.

Crack! Kirby tore right through the core and shot out Sachiel's back.

The red sphere fractured and exploded into countless pieces, and the Angel fell backwards.

Kirby then inhaled the pieces of Sachiel's core reverted back to his original state.

"Poyo!" He cheered over his victory, floating in the air.

-x-

"…He defeats the Angel…and then just floats in the air like nothing happened?" Some of the personnel asked.

"Kirby's a jolly hero," said Shinji. "He doesn't take anything serious after he deals with it."

"Spoken like someone who knows?" Misato asks.

"He saved me eighty-two times, despite my efforts to stay out of danger."

But all Gendo saw was a new threat to his scenario. Anything that wasn't under his control was viewed as a threat, even if it was viewed as some sort of miracle.

Ring-ring! A phone rang and Fuyutsuki picked it up.

"Fuyutsuki. Yes? I'll make sure he's informed." He spoke before hanging up. "That was the UN. They want to know if we knew about this pink phenomenon that just took out an Angel."

To be continued…

A/N: One Angel down…and more changes to come.


	3. Pink and Heroic

Creation began on 10-15-17

Creation ended on 07-03-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Pink and Heroic

Once he was done basking in the sunlight, Kirby floated over to his spaceship and set a course to where the boy he met many years prior was being held.

"Poyo," he uttered, hoping that Shinji was at least in one piece; if anything awful happened to the boy as a direct result of bringing him back to his ancestral planet, the Star Warrior wouldn't be able to forgive himself for letting him suffer.

-x-

The only person that really knew anything about this Kirby was Shinji…and the boy decided to keep quiet after his father demanded that he reveal all that he knew about the little, pink alien.

"How long do you intend to keep him in the brig for his unwillingness to divulge what he most likely doesn't know how to answer about this Kirby, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki asked Gendo, looking down at the prison cell that held Shinji.

"He either talks or he sits in there," Gendo responded.

"You're being unfair to him. He views Kirby as a hero, and you view him as a…threat when he may not be one at all. How much of a threat is one…pink alien?"

"We don't know what this creature is capable of. It could be carrying pathogens impervious to eradication or some strain of disease."

"Well, your son has been around him for over eleven years, and he tested clear of any diseases. He was the same boy from before you left him."

Ring! Gendo's desk phone rang, and he answered it.

"Yes?" He questioned.

"Sir, uh, that pink hero that defeated the Angel…is on its way to the base," a male voice informed him.

"How long until it shows up?"

"Two minutes."

-x-

Hovering over an empty spot in Tokyo-3, Kirby vacated his ship and floated higher into the air. His intention was to solidify his body and impact his way into the underground base he discovered Shinji was being held in; after deciding that being brought back here to see his father was a grave mistake on his part, Kirby needed to rectify this act.

"Poyo," he uttered, and became a solid, orange boulder falling from the sky towards the city.

SLAM! He struck with sufficient force to smash right through the street and into the Geo-Front, where he quickly changed back and floated towards the NERV base.

-x-

"You've gotta be kidding me," said a female technician as the whole of Central Dogma watched in suspense as Kirby just let himself into the base without any resistance being thrown at him.

Through the commotion, Fuyutsuki silently vacated the chamber and headed towards the brig; if Kirby was here for Shinji, then it was in NERV's best interests to simply…let Shinji go if there was no hope of reconciliation between father and son. He ran as fast as he could and reached the brig where Shinji was being detained and opened the cell.

"Your jolly hero made a commotion by smashing right into the Geo-Front," he told Shinji.

"He did it many times when he had to rescue me from a bad guy," the boy chuckled.

"Come on. I'm getting you out of here and right to him."

"Why? Kirby wouldn't hurt anyone that doesn't deserve it."

"I don't trust your father not to try and hurt anyone else to try and hurt Kirby."

"It's next to impossible to hurt him. Powerful but peaceful, strong yet caring."

-x-

Kirby performed an energy slash at the locked entrance to the metal pyramid and walked inside.

"Poyo," he uttered.

"Stop right there!" He heard a man say to him, raising up a pistol at him. "Surrender, immediately!"

Kirby inhaled and sucked the man into himself, and then blew him out onto the floor, incapacitating him before walking past him.

"What the…" The man expressed as he got up; he felt like he had been transported to a vast abyss for what felt like a long time before being brought back to the base. "What are you?"

-x-

Gendo ordered the halls be flooded with bakelite, but nobody carried out that order after seeing Kirby suck a man into his mouth and spat him out like a vacuum cleaner.

Especially not after someone reported that the Third Child had been removed from his cell by Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki.

"What is he doing?" Gendo demanded.

"Uh, it looks like he's taking the boy right to the alien," answered a man.

Gendo got up and left the chamber, intent on stopping this attempt.

-x-

Nobody made any attempt to stop or even approach Kirby after knowing that the first attempt ended up with a guy getting sucked into his mouth and spat out again. Whenever they saw the jolly, pink alien, they just stood against the wall and waited in silence until he walked (or floated) past them.

Kirby paid them no mind; he understood they were afraid of him, but his concern was Shinji.

Further down the hall, he saw the little boy being led by an elderly man towards him and stopped.

"Hey, Kirby," Shinji greeted him.

"Poyo," he greeted back.

"Stop right there!" They all heard Gendo's voice, seeing down a different corner of the hallway, pointing a pistol at them. "I can't have you running away like before, boy."

Shinji's eyes widened in response to what his father just called him. In fact, ever since he returned from Popstar, his father, not even once, addressed him by his name. It was either "boy", "kid", "child" or "Third Child", not "son" or "Shinji". He was starting to consider that it was his greatest mistake by coming back here, not realizing that time had passed for everyone except himself…and his father. Maybe it was even his greater mistake to think that his father was a good person who was simply misunderstood and everything.

"Kirby, I want to go back to Popstar, please," he told the pink alien.

Gendo, however, felt threatened by this; even if his son hadn't grown an inch since he left him that day, he was confident that he could still use him to pilot the Eva. Even if he had to use rapid growth accelerants on him, he was certain the boy would still be useful to his agenda.

"Poyo," Kirby uttered, but then looked at Gendo; he hadn't seen another human being that was as…cold…or as heartless…as this young child's father currently was.

Kirby had seen many negative individuals before in his past, but this boy's father had to be the most negative he'd seen by far, which made him a possible threat to others if left unchecked to progress any further than currently.

"Poyo… Your father…unyielding…and unfriendly," he expressed to Shinji, who simply looked down at his feet and the floor.

Kirby then walked over to face the man, his eyes exhibiting some degree of anger towards him.

"You will not harm your son, ever again," he told Gendo.

"You can't take him," Gendo responded…and raised his gun at him; this was more out of spite than fear…and he didn't stop to think that this creature was impervious to small arms fire or a simple punch.

Shinji and Fuyutsuki gasped, but Kirby jumped…and head-butted Gendo in his stomach, sending him falling to the floor, losing his gun.

"Aaaurgh!" He groaned.

He tried to get up, but felt a weight on his chest…and saw that it was Kirby on top, looking down at him with contempt.

"Poyo!" He went, and then slapped Gendo's face several times.

"Aaaahh! Stop that! Stop! Aaah!" Gendo yelled, feeling bruised all over his cheeks and nose.

When Kirby ceased, he was bits of purple with a bloody nose. He then hopped off and returned to Shinji, intent on taking him back to Popstar.

Fuyutsuki could've said something to stop the alien, even telling the boy the truth about what happened all those years ago, but then realized that knowing could've simply made things worse than before with Shinji…and let Kirby leave with him.

"I am sorry about all of this, Shinji," he instead apologized to him.

Shinji turned back to look at him…and simply nodded in the positive.

To be continued…

A/N: Patience until the next chapter.


	4. Excuses, Excuses

Creation began on 07-13-18

Creation ended on 07-14-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Excuses, Excuses

A/N: How NERV is facing ridicule after Kirby takes Shinji back to Popstar.

It was technically Gendo Ikari's fault, but because he was the one in charge, the whole of NERV was, by right of association, the victim of ridicule due to his actions within the Geo-Front. Even if the Angel that appeared to destroy the human race was dealt with by what seemed to be a little, pink alien, it was the same alien that broke into NERV Headquarters…and rescued Gendo's estranged, toddler son from him after seeing the boy was not being treated properly and said man had done absolutely nothing to make amends for leaving him over ten years ago. And it was because of this that the entire agency was getting dragged into the mud of questionable attitudes used by it with the public and the UN.

"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, despite his role in the absence of your son, is hardly at fault for your actions, Ikari," SEELE 01 told Gendo during his meeting with the council that controlled the UN from the shadows. "We've interviewed him earlier, and he explained that it was you that had him incarcerated after demanding that he tell you all that he knew about this…Kirby."

"If he knew the alien by name, then he had to know how it fights, its strengths and weaknesses," Gendo expressed his reason for throwing the boy in the brig. "I explained to him that until he divulged what he knew, he'd be confined."

"You never once thought to consider that maybe he didn't know anything beyond what he explained already about this Kirby being a jolly individual?" SEELE 08 questioned.

"Children are capable of lying," Gendo defended.

"What ulterior motive would your ageless son have to lie to you about a creature he has stated saved his life several times in the past?" SEELE 11 asked him.

"He has been away for over ten years. That is plenty of time to learn deceptive behavior."

"Spoken like one that knows deception," said SEELE 03, making no hint that he was referring to Gendo himself.

-x-

"…It's definitely possible that this time, the kid won't return," stated Ritsuko to Misato as they looked at the online news that reflected NERV's ridicule over Shinji Ikari's sudden return after going missing and later departure.

"And the surveillance footage showing Commander Ikari pointing a gun at both the pink alien and his son diminishes NERV's credibility and competence," Misato responded. "What was he thinking? I mean, what the Hell was he thinking? If he had shot either one of them, he could've killed his own son, he could've hurt him."

"He's not a subtle person," the faux-blond explained. "This may affect our ability to deal with the Angels later."

-x-

"…Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury to replace you right now, Ikari," SEELE 01 informed him, having informed the man that his actions against his son and his pink savior had left several people insisting that he be stripped of his authority at NERV and incarcerated. "But don't think that you're off the hook. We'll be deciding whether or not the idea Fuyutsuki suggested is the best option during these desperate times. Until then, your future actions will be monitored."

Gendo was feeling less than relieved to know this. If he was going to be monitored now, he had to be more careful wherever he went.

"It's not just the concern of the adequate pilots and Evas," SEELE 01 continued. "We also need to be ready for the Human Instrumentality Project. It may very well be our true salvation in these desperate times, and we'll not let the second coming of the Angels or your nonexistent relationship with your son delay it. Don't trouble us with your actions further, Ikari."

-x-

"What did you suggest to the Committee, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki?" Misato asked the elder as he stood in front of Evangelion Unit-01.

"If we see this jolly alien again, we should let it face the Angels for us," Fuyutsuki had suggested. "Maybe even aid it or use it as NERV's poster propaganda that we're open to extraterrestrial aid. It was able to defeat an Angel on its own and that was far from Tokyo-3 when it happened."

"But even if such were possible, we don't know if the alien, this…Kirby…will even return after what happened two days ago. We may be left to our own methods of facing the Angels because of it."

"It's only a suggestion for if it does come back, nothing beyond that."

To be continued…

A/N: Be on the lookout for my new poll based on this story. It will decide the next chapter in the future. Peace out.


End file.
